


Take It All

by zoreozoishiki



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: 7x07, ASZ, Adorable Judith, Alcohol, Alexandria Safe-Zone, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Carl, Blood, Gen, Guns, Hurt Rick, Knives, Mind Games, Mindfuck, Negan Being Negan, Negan Being an Asshole, One-Eyed Carl Grimes, Protective Carl Grimes, Sing Me A Song, Swearing, The Sanctuary, Underage Drinking, Violence, Zombies, the saviors - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-09-06 20:56:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8769049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoreozoishiki/pseuds/zoreozoishiki
Summary: (Set directly after the ending of 7x07, except Daryl never received the note)Negan takes Carl and Judith back to The Sanctuary with him for a week while Rick and the other Alexandrians struggle to collect enough supplies for his next visit.





	1. Monday - Carl

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the ending of 7x07, Jesus, wasn't it such a good episode? It stayed so true to the comics and Chandler Riggs' acting was on point. Definitely the best episode of season 7 so far, I can't wait for the mid-season finale.
> 
> (Unedited)

Carl honestly couldn't find the words to describe the fear that he felt when Negan picked up his little sister. Judith seemed fine with everything, all things considered, but that didn't take away the pure terror he felt as the three sat on the porch waiting for Rick to arrive, a glass jug of lemonade on the table between them.

"Why don't you have a drink, Carl?" Negan said suddenly, pushing the jug slightly towards the boy as Judith slept comfortably against his chest. Carl had already felt powerless for a short while back at the sanctuary, not only was he weaponless, but Negan had also forced him to reveal his missing eye- a personal part of himself that very few people saw. Michonne was the only person to see it almost as often as he did, he didn't even let his father help change his bandages when he was finally beginning to recover, it was such an obvious weak spot that Carl refused to let people see in fear of them using it against him in the future, or seeing him as a weakling. But Negan had seen it, and now everyone in Alexandria could see it if they stopped and looked at him for more than five seconds, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't manage to get his hair to fully cover it again, so he settled for keeping his head down when he wasn't shooting glances over to Negan and Judith to make sure that she was still okay.

"I'm not thirsty." Carl answered, not even bothering to look at the man and instead keeping his eye trained on the flowers a little while away.

Negan scoffed, "how can you not be thirsty? You haven't had a drink all damn day, even though I offered you a beer when I had to speak to my wives." He pushed the jug, a little more forcefully this time but not enough to make it tip over, "stay hydrated, have a damn drink."

Carl let out a loud sigh and quickly poured himself a glass of the lemonade, downing the drink in seconds before slamming the glass back down on the table. "Happy now?" He asked, settling back down in the chair.

Negan chuckled, "someone's-" he stopped before he could finish his sentence when he noticed Olivia returning yet again, this time with Tara in tow, trailing a little further behind than needed.

"Well hello." He greeted, sitting up slightly and causing Judith to stir in her sleep, Carl kept his eye trained on the two of them, Negan glanced in his direction before carefully picking Judith up and offering her over to Carl, who gladly accepted.

Negan returned his attention to the two women in front of him, "Olivia," he said, nodding in the woman's direction, "and you are?" He asked, looking at Tara.

"Tara." She answered quickly, not bothering to hesitate.

"Tara, huh? Well allow me to tell you that you are pretty good looking, I wouldn't mind taking you back to the sanctuary with me-"

"I like girls." Tara stated quickly, interrupting Negan's speech.

Carl watched the two interact silently, nodding to Olivia when she mouthed 'is Judith okay?' at him, and making sure he held Judith close at all times, he wondered if she could feel how fast his heart was beating.

"You like girls, huh?" Negan replied, smirking, "well I'm sure I could always change that."

Tara was visibly taken aback and slightly offended, but she didn't seem to care, instead ignoring Negan's comment and looking at Olivia.

"We came to tell you that Rick is almost here- Spencer said that he saw him after scouting the area in his car-" Negan clapped his hands loudly and Olivia jumped slightly, Carl instinctively held onto Judith a little bit tighter, making sure that he wasn't hurting her but that she couldn't be whisked away at the same time.

"Well then! Let's get this party started!" He lifted himself up of off the chair and looked at Carl. "C'mon kid, let's go tell daddy all about your little adventure." He gestured for Carl to get up and follow him before picking up Lucille and walking in between Tara and Olivia, getting a little bit too close for comfort to the ladies. Olivia shot Carl a sympathetic look as he followed, and he sent one back as best he could, glad that he was able to keep hold of Judith.

The two walked over to the entrance gates, and Carl sucked in a deep breath as he saw his dad approaching with Aaron, Negan chuckled and glanced at him, and for a second Carl was afraid he was going to try and take Judith again, but he soon returned his attention to the approaching figures.

"Carl." Was the first thing Rick said as soon as he was within hearing distance, "Carl are you okay?" He picked up the pace until he was standing a few feet away from where Carl was stood next to Negan, Judith held tightly in his arms.

"Rick, Rick, Rick, that's no way to treat your guest!" Negan interrupted before Carl could voice a reply, so the boy settled for nodding instead.

Rick slowly turned toward Negan and allowed his gaze to fall on the man he despised, but at the same time feared. He cleared his throat, "Negan." He gave a small, sharp nod.

Negan chuckled before reaching out and grabbing Carl's shoulder, pulling him towards him so they were closer together, almost like a father and son would stand for a family portrait. Rick visibly bristled at Carl's reaction, which was to put his head down and direct his attention to Judith yet again.

"Hey Rick, I hope you've got time to spare." Negan said, smiling almost sadistically as his hand stayed firmly planted on Carl's shoulder, Rick didn't miss how the man's voice dropped a few octaves as he spoke his next line, "because we need to talk."


	2. Monday - Rick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negan has a chat with Rick and decides to take Carl and Judith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna wait a while longer until I had the next chapter written because I prefer to have chapters ready to post so you guys won't be kept waiting forever in case I get writers block or something but the comments I got on the first chapter motivated me and I'm posting this now. Chapter three might take a little bit longer because I'm currently rewriting it but I'm sure if you comment I'll be able to work faster ;). Seriously though, comments are greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> (Unedited)

"We need to talk."

Rick knew as soon as Negan had spoken the four words that whatever conversation that they were going to be having would not end well. He glanced at Carl, his bandage off and his hair barely covering the space where his eye used to be, and then looked back at Negan.

"What do we need to talk about?" He asked carefully, aware of the audience their altercation had attracted, Rosita, Spencer and Eugene watched from their space next to the gates, Olivia and Tara watched off to the side, a little while away from Negan, Aaron was slightly closer, and a few steps behind Rick. Many other Alexandrians had gathered to watch what was going on.

Negan grinned, "your badass-one-eyed-no-shit-taking son and your _adorable_ daughter that you neglected to tell me about!" He finally released Carl's shoulder, but turned to the boy and held out his arms expectantly instead.

Carl's one eye darted between Rick, Negan and Judith in under two seconds as he mentally debated with himself on whether or not to hand her over. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him not to, but he knew that if he refused, Negan could use that as an excuse to hurt her or anyone else here, so he reluctantly handed her over, taking Lucille in return.

Seeing Negan holding Judith sent a whole new wave of terror over Rick, seeing Negan manhandle Carl wasn't enjoyable to watch, but he knew that Carl could at least attempt to protect himself. Judith, however, was a defenceless child, a baby, and while Rick did slightly doubt that Negan would kill her, he knew that there were other ways he could make sure that Rick never saw his daughter again.

"So, Rick, tell me…why is it that you didn't bother telling me about this little bundle of joy right here?" Negan tickled Judith, who giggled in response, now wide awake from her nap earlier and seemingly excited to meet new people.

Rick shrugged, trying to keep his cool and look as nonchalant as possible despite the fact that Carl was staring at Negan holding Judith with fear in his eyes. "Never came up."

Negan nodded, "okay, okay, reasonable." He looked at Carl and then at the way the boy was tightly gripping Lucille. He smirked, and leaned down slightly so he was eye level with him. "Loosen your grip on her a little, would ya?" He leaned in slightly closer to Carl, who simply glared back, "you gotta treat her like a lady, remember?"

If looks could kill, Negan would've been a walker a long time ago, Carl narrowed his eye and loosened his grip slightly on the baseball bat.

"Anyway." Negan began, "let's see what you've collected for me, shall we?" He nodded to a couple a Saviors, who began to follow Spencer towards the car he'd been driving. Negan sighed, tapping his boot on the floor and tickling Judith every now and then. Aaron helped collect the things they were giving to the Saviors, while Rick continued to stand and watch the psychopath with his daughter.

* * *

 

"That's it, really?" Negan asked in disbelief after seeing the measly amount of supplies that Rick and his group has collected for him.

"You took more than half our stuff last time, we were already running low on everything-"

"Excuses, excuses Rick, that doesn't get rid of the fact that I want half your stuff, and the shit piled up there doesn't even look like a quarter of it."

Negan tutted disapprovingly, cooing at Judith for a few seconds before making eye contact with Rick and saying to Carl, "go pack yourself and your sister a bag."

Carl looked up at him curiously, obviously confused, "what?"

"I said." Negan shifted Judith slightly, "go pack yourself and your sister a bag. Fill it with essentials, shit she needs, shit you need, make sure there's enough stuff there to last a week."

Carl didn't move for a few seconds as realisation dawned on him and he put two and two together, his mind coming up with the only explanation.

"Carrrrl." Negan said, drawing out the 'ar' part, "hurry up, we don't have all day."

Carl scowled, "screw you." He stated, before carelessly dropping Lucille on the floor and walking off.

Negan sighed, "pick her up for me, would you?" He asked Rick.

Rick quickly obliged, not wanting to anger Negan any more than Carl might've, and bent down to quickly retrieve Lucille from the ground.

"Why are you asking him to pack them bags?" Rick asked, although a part of him already knew the answer and was just trying to deny it.

Negan smirked, "well, since you're finding it increasingly difficult to gather supplies for me, I've decided that you probably need a little less distraction and a little more motivation." He explained, "after all, taking care of a baby and running around after a teenager must waste precious time that could be spent gathering more supplies to give to me."

Rick looked down, trying to ignore the pain exploding in his chest at the thought of having both Carl and Judith taken away from him at the same time.

"Please." He begged, "please, please don't."

"Olivia said you were practically starving here." Negan continued, ignoring Rick's pleas, "so I'll make sure they're both well fed, I know we keep baby food somewhere, although it's usually reserved for prisoners like your friend Daryl."

"Please." Rick repeated. Carl returned, a backpack on his back and another in his hand. Rick also noticed that he'd replaced his bandage.

Negan stared at Carl for a moment, as if he was amazed at the boy's clear defiance, before snapping back into reality and letting out an exaggerated sigh.

"Jesus, you are difficult!" He glanced at Rick, who was slowly breaking down, before looking back at Carl. "You know what I'm gonna tell you to do, kid."

"Then you should know what I'm going to tell you to do in return." Carl replied without missing a beat.

Negan looked around as if he was looking for something before smirking at Carl, "no windows for me to jump out of here, kid. How am I supposed to kill myself if there are no windows to dive out of? I only want to save you the trouble."

"Why don't you slit your throat with the barbed wire from Lucille?" Carl suggested.

Negan chuckled, "creative, I like it. But seriously, take that shit off your face. It ruins your badass look."

Carl sighed and took off his bandage, making sure his hair covered his eye the best that it could before looking at Negan, "happy?"

"Ecstatic." Negan replied, grinning. "Right then! Time to go!" He offered Judith to Carl, who hooked the second backpack over his shoulder and took his baby sister carefully, she wrapped a lock of his hair around one of her fingers and giggled. Carl ignored the way she tugged on it a little.

"Negan please-" Rick tried to beg again, but Negan simply brushed past him and yanked Lucille out of his hand, Carl hesitated for a few seconds before eventually beginning to follow slowly behind.

Rick caught up with his son, walking alongside him as they neared the gates, still holding Lucille.

"Carl, you don't have to go. I can- I can try to reason with him- maybe get him to let you stay-"

"And let him just take Judith?" Carl asked, stopping and turning to look at his dad, "I need to go so I'm there to protect her. I've been before, I know what it's like."

Rick frowned, "that's not what I-" he stopped suddenly as Carl's words properly registered in his mind, "you've been before?"

Carl looked down before speaking again, "I went to the Hilltop with Enid and climbed in a truck."

"You climbed in a truck?!" Rick didn't bother to keep his voice down, even though he was well aware that people would be listening to their conversation.

"I killed two Saviors." Carl told him.

Rick looked shocked at his son's admission, he opened his mouth to reply but Carl had already started walking towards Negan's truck. He stopped again a few feet away from the gates and turned back to Rick.

"Bye dad." He said, "see you soon."

Carl's words echoed in his head as the boy left the safety of Alexandria and got into Negan's truck, sitting between Negan and the driver with Judith on his lap. Rick watched as the truck pulled away and slowly drove off into the distance, the other trucks following behind. Aaron walked over to him and attempted to comfort him by placing a gentle hand in his shoulder, but all it did was remind Rick of how Negan had treated Carl earlier and he shrugged the man's hand off.

"We need to- we need to get going, start finding supplies…" Aaron nodded, turning to say something to Spencer that Rick didn't bother listening to.

"They'll come back." Aaron told him, "he'll bring them back I'm sure, we just need to focus on getting enough stuff."

Rick looked at the man and nodded, "yeah… yeah. Let's go."

Aaron gave a weak smile in reply and started walking back to the gates, Rick turned back to where Negan and Carl had just been standing, and watched as the bandage that Carl had put on was blown away by the wind. He looked down, trying not to think about all the terrible things Negan could do to his daughter and son and began to follow Aaron out of the gates, preparing himself for a long week of scavenging and praying that they would find enough supplies.


	3. Tuesday - Carl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carl and Negan have a chat at the sanctuary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly just a filler chapter but I promise that things will pick up soon! There will also be a bit more Negan & Judith interaction in future chapters so look out for that!
> 
> (Unedited)

Carl stared up and the decorated bedroom ceiling above him as he allowed his head to sink into one of the extremely comfortable pillows that littered the double bed he'd been given. Judith was sleeping silently in the crib directly across from him, looking adorable while sucking her thumb. It comforted Carl somewhat to know that he wasn't completely alone this time at the sanctuary, but Judith couldn't really do much considering the fact that she was barely a toddler.

Negan hadn't made an appearance yet today and Carl knew that it was getting late, the man had barely even spoken to Carl after they'd arrived back at the sanctuary, he just showed Carl his room, made some really bad eye jokes and complimented Carl's badassness when the teen demanded that Judith's crib be placed in the room he'd be staying in. After that he'd disappeared, probably to screw one of his wives or to iron somebody's face, although Carl assumed he'd make him watch that again, so it was probably the former.

Carl hadn't seen Daryl either, so he was probably still stuck in his cell. No other Saviors had bothered Carl the whole day and the boy had stayed in his room, eating fruit from a tray someone had left outside his door.

A sudden knock from said door startled Carl out of his thoughts, and he moved off of the bed and opened it to reveal Fat Joey pushing a trolley with a tray.

"Negan told me to bring this up for you." The man said, almost nervously.

Carl moved out of the way to let Joey in, but raised an eyebrow, "are you afraid of me?"

At first, the man shook his head, but his head shaking eventually evolved into nodding and he slowly edged towards the door to try and get away.

"Why?" Carl asked.

"It's mostly the eye. No offence, I've just got a thing about eyes. Slightly squeamish." Joey answered.

"Mostly?" Carl questioned, still standing by the door.

"You killed two of us and Negan didn't do anything about it. Like, he didn't hurt you or kill you. That says a lot."

"Like what?" Carl was intrigued.

Fat Joey opened his mouth and then closed it again, shaking his head. "Negan wanted you to help yourself to that stuff, by the way."

Carl frowned and looked over to the trolley, "stuff…?" When he didn't get a reply, he looked back at the doorway to find that it was empty. He sighed and closed the door gently so he didn't wake Judith.

He made his way over to the trolley and immediately found out why Joey had said stuff, he rolled his eye and carefully inspected the bottle of alcohol in front of him. The bottle was similar to the one he'd seen Negan drinking when he was first introduced to his wives, so he assumed that it was plain beer. Carl picked up the bottle, trying to peer inside to see what the liquid looked like. He glanced at Judith, still sleeping peacefully in her crib, and muttered "screw it" before quickly taking a swig of the drink.

Carl winced as the taste filled his mouth, and he was reminded of the time his dad had let him try wine at the CDC. He swallowed the liquid down, wondering why people even liked the stuff.

He stared at the bottle for a few more seconds, before gulping down some more.

A few more sips (okay, maybe gulps) later and Carl was lying on the bed again, his head feeling slightly fuzzy as he closed his one eye when the room spun. The bottle was around half-empty, or something, he wasn't sure, he didn't know if he cared. It was discarded on the tray since Carl didn't want to get drunk- unless he was already drunk, but he didn't want to get even more drunk either.

He closed his eyes, planning to relax for a few seconds and then open them again, but he found himself drifting off to sleep, he didn't bother fighting it, the alcohol in his system pretty much prevented that anyway, he mumbled something along the lines of "goodnight" to Judith before drifting off fully.

-o0o-

When he woke up next Negan was in his room, leaning over a babbling Judith who kept making grabby hands at him. Carl instinctively sat up, but found out the hard way that drinking came with a price. He placed a hand on his throbbing head and allowed himself to fall back onto the bed.

"Oh, you're awake." Carl could practically hear Negan's smirk as the man sat on the edge of Carl's bed, momentarily abandoning Judith.

"What…what time is it?" Carl asked.

"Probably about a few minutes past nine. You were out for a couple hours." Negan paused, and Carl glanced at him with his one eye, "I brought you some painkillers, if you want 'em. Mostly because we need to have a chat and you being in pain might disrupt your focus."

Carl pushed himself up again, slowly this time, and took the pills that Negan offered him. He hesitated, his mind warning him of all the worst case scenarios, before he remember that he pretty much didn't have a choice and swallowed the pills with a gulp of water from a glass Negan passed him.

"What do you want?" Carl asked after a few moments. Judith had fallen silent, although Carl still heard her babble every now and then.

"In a couple days." Negan began, "my men and I, are going to have a little…meeting with another group."

Carl worked out what the term 'meeting' meant in seconds, he nodded slowly, wondering where this conversation was going.

"I want you to come with us." Negan told him, "show you what it's like to be on the side with the most power, because judging by your reaction to me being in charge of my men, it's not something your very familiar with."

"So?" Carl questioned, he knew that if Negan wanted him to go, he'd have to go, there was no point in them having this conversation.

"I wanted to know if I can trust you with a gun."

The words took a little longer than usual to register in Carl's brain, but when they did, his eye widened. "You'd give me a gun?"

Negan smirked, "if I thought I could trust you with it. I'm pretty sure I can, since you're a smart kid and you know that if you decide to open fire on my men after I've trusted you with one of my weapons someone will pay."

Negan's gaze slowly drifted to Judith, happily playing with the sheets in her crib and completely oblivious to the threat on her life.

"So," Negan continued, "can I trust you?"

He couldn't, they both knew that if Judith was out of the picture Carl wouldn't be nearly as compliant, but she wasn't, and Carl didn't have a choice, so he slowly began to nod.

"Yeah." He answered, "yeah you can trust me."

Negan clapped his hands loudly, which drew Judith's attention and caused her to start babbling again. He got off of the bed and lifted the baby up, placing her on the bed next to Carl and tickling her so she giggled. Carl pulled her closer to him the second Negan moved away.

"Alright then!" The man sad, "try and get some rest, kid, you've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Carl frowned, confused, "what do you mean?"

Negan chucked, making his way over to the door. "If I'm giving you a gun, you need to be able to hit a target." Carl still looked confused, so he continued, "don't think I missed all those holes in the wall next to your dart board. There's no point in giving you a gun if you don't have the skill to use it." Carl looked down at Judith, who was playing with the buttons on his flannel shirt, "get ready to work on your aim, kid." Negan said, and then he was gone.

Carl pulled Judith onto his lap, she squirmed slightly but then relaxed, pulling on a few locks of his hair like she usually did whenever she got close enough. He sighed and leaned his head back so it hit the wall behind him.

"We've gotten ourselves into some real deep shit, Judy." He said.

"Weal deep shit!" Judith repeated.

Carl smiled, and despite the circumstances, he actually laughed.

"Yup. We totally have."


	4. Tuesday - Rick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick and Michonne decide to take action against Negan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for disappearing. I was waiting for the mid season premier to air because I had serious Writer's Block and was hoping for some inspiration. I have the next to chapters planned, and while I can't promise regular updates, I can definitely promise that this fic hasn't been abandoned!
> 
> (Unedited)

Michonne grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers while he anxiously waited at the front of the church.

He and Aaron had gone back out for the rest of yesterday, collecting as much as they could in the short amount of time they had. Rick had originally planned to stay out looking for at least three days, but Aaron reminded him that more supplies would be gathered if there were more people looking for them, and that not all of the Alexandrians were aware of what exactly was at stake this time. So they had returned and Rick had demanded that everybody meet in the church for a town meeting the following day.

Rick had nothing planned, not that he usually did, but usually he had somewhat of a faint outline of what he wanted to say, at this moment in time his mind was elsewhere, terrified that if Negan ever did bring Carl and Judith back, that  he would find out that they'd been harmed, or worse, if Negan came back and neither of them were with him.

He tried desperately not to dwell on thoughts like that, it'd only been a day after they'd been taken, after all. But he was a parents, and all parents did about their kids was worry.

-o0o-

Rick watched as the Alexandrians slowly filtered into the church and took their seats, he spotted members of his group, and noticed that Enid, the girl that Carl seemed to be friends with, was nowhere to be seen. Rick didn't think about that much though, since the girl was always disappearing over the wall, and it wasn't like she could really help out anyway.

When everybody had entered and Michonne left his side, Rick cleared his throat to get everybody's attention, and quickly began his speech.

"As some of you people may know," he started, "Negan arrived in Alexandria yesterday to collect our supplies and he…" Rick stopped for a moment, but continued, "he wasn't satisfied with what we gave him." Rick took a deep breath, "to…to ensure that we got enough for him next time, he…he took my son and daughter with him." Rick made sure to keep his gaze on the people listening to him, to make sure everybody was paying attention. "I'm sure that most of you know Carl, you've probably seen him with his sister, Judith around Alexandria, and you've probably ended up helping babysit Judith at one point or another." Rick let a small smile sneak onto his face and a chuckle escape from his lips, remembering all the times he'd seen Carl playing with Judith, or singing her to sleep. "I'm sure that any of you here who have a child- or have had a child, understand what it feels like to have that child taken away from you." Rick took another deep breath, "so I brought you all here to ask you to help find supplies for the saviours if you haven't already."

He waited while the Alexandrians murmured their replies to one another.

Tobin soon stood up and cleared his throat loudly, catching the attention of the others as Rick had earlier.

"Rick's right. Carl and Judith are just kids, why are we even considering this? We need to do everything that we can do to make sure that they both come back alive." He said.

"Even if we do go and gather stuff for Negan, there's no guarantee that he'll even bring them both back. Why are we even trusting him?" An Alexandrian spoke up.

"We don't have a choice." Rick answered, "And I'd rather gather things for Negan and ensure that if he does bring them back, they'll get to stay, than not gather anything at all and ruin my chances of getting them back at all."

"I think that settles it then." Tobin spoke up again, "we'll split up into groups and begin gathering things first thing tomorrow."

Rick nodded and smiled at him in thanks, allowing Michonne to grab his hand and gently tug him out of the church.

"That went well." She said as they walked side by side towards their house. Rick had hated being in there after Carl and Judith were taken, even though Carl was hardly ever home, the house still felt too quiet without Judith excitedly babbling or crying because she wanted attention.

Even so, Rick continued walking towards the building and nodded in reply to what Michonne had said. "We'll need to be careful with who we put with who, and I think one member of our group should go with each group, just to make sure everybody knows what they're doing. The last thing we need right now is more casualties."

Michonne nodded back in agreement, before stopping in her tracks. "I think that we should go to the Hilltop, just me and you, we need to check up on Maggie and…"

"And…?" Rick asked, looking at her.

"Rick...I tried to go to the Sanctuary, tried to find and kill Negan myself, it was stupid, but I was so angry and I wanted revenge. He has so many men, and we can't keep letting him walk all over us like this. We can't let him kill our friends and take our children, we can't."

"What are you suggesting, Michonne?" Rick questioned.

Michonne looked him in the eyes and continued, "we need to gather people, an army. Rick, I think… I think that we need to go to war."

Rick looked down, closing his eyes, he'd known somewhere deep down, ever since the night they lost Abraham and Glenn, that war with Negan was inevitable. At some point, someone would snap, whether it'd be someone from their group or someone from the Saviors didn’t matter, neither side would go down without a fight.

He finally looked back up at Michonne again after a few seconds of silence, "I think we do too." He replied.

-o0o-

The sun shone brightly down on Alexandria's inhabitants as they all gathered by the gate, they had been split up into groups of four plus one person of Rick's group except for Rick and Michonne, who were planning to go to the Hilltop in hopes of finding help there from Jesus or Maggie and Sasha.

There were four groups in total and each was identified by a letter. Rosita was with Group A, Tara was with Group B, Aaron was with Group C and Tobin with Group D. Each group had a walkie talkie and their objectives were to gather as much as they could carry to give to Negan at the end of the week.

Rick thanked everyone for volunteering to take part and then left with Michonne for the Hilltop on foot as the groups took their cars and trucks.

"You're worrying too much." Michonne told him after about an hour of walking in silence, "Carl would be throwing himself at Lucille to try and break her if he found out how much you were worrying about him right now. 'I can take care of myself dad!' 24/7. And don't you dare worry about Judith either because you know that Carl is protecting her with his life, and if he's protecting her then you know that he'll try his best to not do anything stupid."

Rick chuckled, knowing that she was right. Carl was constantly trying to prove to everyone that he could take care of himself and that he didn't need anybody else's help, but he would also go out of his way to protect his friends and family.

They arrived at the Hilltop a while later, rushing forward to hug Maggie and Sasha. Rick was so overwhelmed by all his emotions that he didn't even notice Enid rushing around the corner of one of the buildings with a hopeful and excited look on her face, only to stop dead in her tracks as her eyes scanned the people around her and she found no trace of Carl.

"Where's Rosita, Carl, the others?" Maggie asked, confused as to why only Michonne and Rick had come to see her.

Rick's gaze immediately fell to the ground at the mention of Carl's name. Michonne seemed to notice as she rubbed his back as soothingly as she could while she answered Maggie's question.

"That's the reason we're here actually."

Maggie noticed Rick's reaction and brought a hand up to her mouth. "Carl…?"

"He's not...dead, is he?" Enid asked quietly after walking up and standing next to Maggie. "I told him not to go- I begged him to, it was stupid and we both knew he wasn't going to make it out!" Enid blinked away the tears in her eyes as she waited for Michonne's answer.

Michonne shook her head hastily, "no, no, he's not dead. But Negan took him and Judith to the Sanctuary and he's keeping them there unless we get him a large amount of supplies by the end of this week."

"We've send out groups of Alexandrians alongside one member of our own to scavenge for things for him but we're here to ask you something as well."

"Well what is it?" Sasha asked.

Rick sighed, "we're tired and being forced to live like this, with barely any food, sleeping on the floor and being forced to risk our lives to gather things for Negan." He told them, "it's time to go to war."


	5. Wednesday - Carl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negan teaches Carl how to shoot.

Carl was woken up by loud banging on his door and Judith's cries as she was rudely awakened too.

 

"Rise and shine you one-eyed badass! Today's work-on-your-aim day!" Negan's voice came from outside the door, the man had strolled into Carl's room with one of his wives in tow before the teen had even managed to get out of bed.

 

Carl rubbed the sleep out of his eye and watched silently as Negan's wife- Sherry, he thought her name was -went over to a crying Judith and scooped her up into her arms, beginning to soothe her. Negan noticed Carl watching the action and laughed.

 

"You don't think I'd leave her alone while I took you outside the walls, did you?"

 

"We're going outside the walls?" Carl asked in disbelief.

 

"Well I don't want you shooting wildly and "accidentally" taking some of my men out with a "stray" bullet, do I?" Negan told him.

 

Sherry left with Judith in her arms, and Carl immediately got up in an attempt to follow her to make sure his sister was okay, but Negan grabbed his arm and stopped him from leaving the room.

 

"She'll be fine, do you really think I'm stupid enough to kill Rick's little girl?" Negan scoffed, "c'mon, breakfast is ready."

 

-o0o-

 

After what had been a massive breakfast (compared to what he'd been eating before, at least) Carl followed Negan out of the Sanctuary and towards one of his many cars. One of his men passed him the keys and Negan unlocked the car door and slid into the driver's seat, opening the door for Carl on the other side.

 

Carl quickly got in, shutting the car door behind him and then looking at Negan, who was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to a song only he could hear.

 

"No seatbelt?" Negan said, "I thought your parents would've raised you better than that."

 

Carl put his seatbelt on as Negan began to reverse out of the space the car had been parked in.

 

"Do you know how to drive Carl?" Negan asked him. Carl's mind immediately went back to the last time he'd attempted to drive a car, and what had happened after he'd crashed it. He tried not to think of Enid and how she'd begged him not to go on his little suicide mission, tried to ignore how he should've listened to her and that she was right, tried to-

 

"Kid?" Negan's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and Carl sucked in a breath, calming his racing heart. _Was Enid okay? Did she know where he was? Did she think he was dead?_

 

"No." Carl answered, "I never learnt, my dad never had time to teach me."

 

"To busy being Mr. Leader, I'm assuming." Negan replied.

 

Carl nodded, "pretty much."

 

Another few minutes of silence, then Negan spoke up again.

 

"What happened to your mom?"

 

Carl _really_ didn't want to answer that question, "I already told you, she died and- and I shot her."

 

"Yeah but how'd she die?" Negan asked.

 

Carl closed his eye, trying to ignore the tears threatening to spill out of it.

 

Negan seemed to notice this, "shit, kid, never mind." He turned on the radio and some stupid annoyingly happy song blasted through the speakers. Negan groaned, "fucks sake, even I'm sick of this shit now and I hardly hear it as much." He turned the radio off again.

 

After what felt like hours of driving, the car finally slowed to a stop. Carl looked out of the window and saw that they were at some sort of fenced off area. Negan left the car and went to the trunk, pulling out some cans and placing them along the fence. Carl watched him for a while before getting out of the car and leaning against the side, waiting for Negan to call him over.

 

Negan returned to the trunk and finally pulled out a handgun. He loaded it and checked to see if the safety was on, and then walked back over to Carl.

 

"Here's your gun, kid." Carl recognised it as the gun Simon had taken off of him the night they lost Glenn and Abraham. He raised his eyebrow, slowly taking it and running his thumb over the Lucille engraved on the handle.

 

"I thought it was _your_ gun." He replied, looking up and staring at Negan.

 

The man smirked, "it _was_ , it's yours now kid." Negan paused, "for now."

 

Carl rolled his eye and pushed past him, taking the safety off the gun and pointing it at one of the cans along the fence. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit a tree behind the fence.

 

"That's some great aim you've got there." Negan remarked sarcastically.

 

"Fuck you." Carl spat, aiming the gun and firing at the can again. It hit the tree again.

 

"I feel like if you aimed for the tree you'd hit the can." Negan laughed.

 

"And if I aimed for you I'd hit your head." Carl muttered under his breath.

 

Out of nowhere, a bullet whizzed past Carl's head and hit the can next to the one Carl had been shooting at. Carl jumped, whirling round and staring at Negan with a shocked look on his face. Negan stood nonchalantly, a gun in his hands.

 

" _That's_ how you shoot." Negan said. "Why're you so angry all the time kid? Like I get that you lost your mom, everything was probably going great and now some asshole is teaching you how to shoot cans in the woods-" Negan stopped himself, "on second thought, I can fully understand why you're so pissed at the world."

 

Carl turned and aimed for the can again, calming his heart rate and tightening his grip on the gun. He pulled the trigger and this time the can went down.

 

Carl could've jumped for joy, but instead he just mentally cheered as he looked back at Negan with a smile on his face.

 

Negan whistled, "good shot." He said, "now do it again."

 

The smile dropped off of Carl's face, and he sighed as he turned back around and aimed his gun again.    


End file.
